Today let's get really fancy. If you frequently use Facebook to chat with friends, you can impress (or at least amuse) them by adding ultra-fancy emoticons to your messages.

This is done by way of "chat codes"—snippets of program language you copy and paste into your chat window. And one really good source for them is Symbols & Emoticons.

That's the link to their home page; here's one to a new batch of codes for images like bullet holes, the Grim Reaper, and even Gangnam Style's Psy. Take a look:

To use any of these in your chats, simply click inside the field below the image, the one with all the incomprehensible numbers and brackets. That click should highlight the entire field, so all that's left is to copy it (by pressing Ctrl-C).

Now switch over to Facebook, start a chat with someone, then paste the code (Ctrl-V) into to where you'd normally type a message. Hit Enter and presto: There's your fancy image!

For more than 20 years, Rick Broida has written about all manner of technology, from Amigas to business servers to PalmPilots. His credits include dozens of books, blogs, and magazines. He sleeps with an iPad under his pillow.